A Poet Pontification: Original Lineup Reunions

Vanna is officially back as of February 28th 2025, they announced on their Instagram that the band formerly known as INSPIRIT would be retaking the moniker of Vanna. INSPIRIT was formed in 2020 by five of the “original” members of Vanna but wanted to go by a different name. Why did I say “original” like that? I cannot find any evidence online that Chris Preece, the unclean vocalist of the first two Vanna LPs and current member was actually an original member. Vanna Was formed in December of 2004, the unclean vocalist credited on the first two EPs before they got signed to Epitaph Records was a guy by the name of Joe Bragel, and the unclean vocalist on the third EP was guitarist and one of only two members who have been in every iteration of Vanna, Nicholas Lambert. Preece was brought into the fold in 2006 just before the recording of their first album Curses. It’s possible that Preece was involved before the recording of their first EP in some capacity, but there’s nothing I’ve found to support that. Anyway, I listened to the first song that was officially released by Vanna in 9 years (holy shit) and all I could do was think about how I wished it wasn’t the original lineup. I prefer the second clean vocalist and I much prefer the third unclean vocalist, especially after he came into his own and was able to do his own vocal style after trying to fit Preece’s style in the beginning. Don’t get me wrong Vanna had some very good songs before 2009 and A New Hope is a good album but not as good as their final three albums. They have every right to call themselves Vanna and I’m not trying to discourage them from doing so but they’re not the Vanna that I hold dear.

This brings us to the main crux of what I guess I’m trying to say. If a band is going to reunite, they should do it with the best lineup, not necessarily the original one. The reunion is very much for the people in the band and if they want to get back together because they want to relive the glory days or they think they have something new to add to the artistic vision of the band now that time has passed, that’s great. They were the ones who had the original concept of what the band should be in the first place. But from the perspective of a member of the listening audience, give me the good shit. Also, in the case of Vanna, Davey Muise has such a distinct vocal style and was also good at playing the older songs. Chris Preece doesn’t have the voice to pull off Davey’s stuff, so they can only do old songs or new ones that they’ve released under INSPIRIT which is fine but will leave many Vanna fans wanting. This also leads to the discussion of whose band it really is and I’m sorry but that has to be a vocalist. It just does. A lot of guitarists are in bands for the longest amount of time through multiple vocalists but the ones speaking the words and (in most cases ) writing the songs are always going to be the ones that people associate the band with. Unless you’re Eddie Van Halen, no Alex Van Halen you don’t count, drummers will forever be disrespected.

Another odd example of and original lineup coming back together when they were not the most popular iteration of the band is Dr. Acula. The original lineup only lasted from 2005-2007 and feature two vocalists, Rob Accardi and Bert Vegas. Dr. Acula changed members like a girl changes clothes, shoutout Katy Perry. The only member that lasted through the bands original run was lead guitarist Bill Graffeo, he also returned for the reunion but left the band in 2024. Accardi didn’t even make to it the first album, only appearing on the first two EPs and Vegas left the band after the first album on which he split vocal duties with Peter Stolarski. It’s not on Spotify but if you look on their page, there is an album called Slobology that has all the songs from the first two demos and their first album and boy does it sound like dogshit. And not a healthy dog. Their best regarded albums came during the three-album tenure of their vocalist Tyler Guida who was joined by Casey Carrano on the latter two albums after teaming with Stolarksi on his first album. Carrano was on the final album of their original run, adding Chris Brea after Guida’s departure. Dr. Acula was conceived and designed as a two-vocalist band, all of their albums feature two vocalists. When they reuinted in 2019 it was with the two original vocalists Accardi and Vegas. Vegas left the band again before the release of their newest (and very good) album in Dr. Acula 2022 and there was only one vocalist featured on the album, Accardi. they called it Dr. Acula, but it was not Dr. Acula, it had the original lineup except for one of the original vocalists and a new drummer because the original drummer had also left the band again by this point. It did not however have two vocalists, which was the Dr. Acula formula the entire time they’ve been around and the vocalist they did have was not on ANY of their previous five albums. So the album release by the reunited “original” lineup was actually the first album they ever released as a unit. Also Accardi is no longer in the band as of 2024.

I think when a band reunites it should be with the most recognizable version of the band. When people hear that a band is back together they picture seeing them live again and them playing all of their old favorites and its a letdown when you come to discover that all your favorites were made by entirely different people. So instead of showing up and looking up at people you haven’t seen in years and it reminds you of all the times you saw them in the past, you look up and then to the side to your old friend from high school who you reunited with to see the show and say “who are these fucking guys?”

One final thing, this is directed primarily at The Misfits but can apply to many others, if you have reunited with the original group and went on a tour or have done it multiple times over the course of a few years, reunite as other iterations. I am glad I was able to see the lineup with Glenn Danzig, that’s one to check off the bucket list, but they’ve been performing for close to a decade now. Bring back Michael Graves for a run. Some people might disagree but I think the two albums in the 90s were great and I would love to be able to see those live. They were also pretty popular at the time so I know I’m not alone. Hell, you could even bring him out for a few songs in the set while Danzig hangs out and rests his voice. Reunions are cool, but if you’re not gonna be putting out new music, then you have to go entirely into fan-service mode and I think doing something like that will keep things fresh and also probably make you some money.

Apologies to Alex Van Halen once again, I’m sure he’s a lovely person.